Tongue Tied
by Krokador
Summary: A thief and a soldier on the battlefield. One's a shy girl from the country-side, the other's an outgoing woman. The one thing they have in common is each other, but finding the right words to say is a difficult task. NepheneexHeather


**Tongue Tied**

She felt the warmth behind her just as two arms wrapped around her neck to gently tie a bright red scarf around it.

Normally, Nephenee would have been jumpy were to anyone approach her in such a sneaky way. However, there was something about Heather's presence that seemed to just turn off her usual reflexes. "Ah, Heather? Watcha doin'?"

Heather moved to the side slightly as she put the finishing touch to her addition to Nephenee's armor and offered the girl a smile. A really bright, contagious smile that spread right to the country girl's cheeks – along with a rather heavy shade of pink.

"Your armor is just so clunky, and… I don't know. I felt it needed to be brightened up. And this way, I can keep track of you on the battlefield."

Nephenee stood still for a few seconds, her arms hanging and holding one of her shoulder guards in her right hand. She wasn't sure exactly why, but her breath seemed caught in her throat and she couldn't exactly understand the gesture.

As far as she knew, you were supposed to give these kind of mementos to your husband, or a knight you were courting. Not a lowly soldier you'd known for just a few days.

"Why… d'you need ta keep track o' me out there?"

Heather gave her body a squeeze before she took a step back so that she could get back to putting that armor on. "I just… I have to make sure a pretty girl like you doesn't get killed off. Here, let me help you with that."

If that was even possible, Nephenee felt her cheeks flush even more at being called beautiful, and all she could do to try and ignore it was to make a grab for her helmet while Heather was busy fixing her last shoulder guard.

"I-If 'nything, Heather, tha one who's gotta look out is you!"

"Aw, isn't that sweet." Heather gave a tug to the leather strap she was adjusting so that Nephenee lost balance slightly and had to lean against her. "But don't you worry about me, sweetheart." It was all she could do not to kiss that pretty pink cheek right there.

Heather forced a smile and pushed Nephenee back to a standing position and then watched the girl hurriedly put on her helmet. She was making no effort whatsoever to hide her affections for the girl. In fact, she was doing her darnedest to put it out there so the girl could either brush her off or reveal that she was feeling the same. She wanted to be respectful. Give her time. But this was becoming a little nerve-wracking. "Say, Nephy?" She began asking before realizing they were heading head first into one of those epic battles the Greil Mercenaries had a habit of getting themselves into. Now was not the time to confuse the girl further.

"Yes, Heather?" Nephenee found her stash of lances and strapped them all to her back, being careful not to untie the red scarf in the process. She was only feigning to not be all that attentive so that she wouldn't have to explain how she felt. Her country speech was still a huge factor in her limited interactions.

"Just… Be safe. Don't do anything crazy." She moved in front of Nephenee and pulled at the scarf a little. Her mind pictured her doing this so that the girl would lean in and kiss her, but in reality, she knew it wasn't going to happen. At least, not yet. "I'd hate to not hear your country gal accent ever again. It's real cute, you know that?"

Despite her best effort, the two women were heavily separated on the battlefield. Heather had to hide in a tree for quite a while because there was a mob of heavy armored knights after her after she'd stolen some of their equipment. Typical Boyd was taking his sweet time being over-protective of Rhys instead of coming to her rescue. Ike was a little too far ahead with Soren to come back to help her. She regretted saying she could take care of herself, biting off more than she could chew with these guys over there.

Nephenee was off in one corner of the battlefield chasing down some cowards running to get more reinforcements. In this chaos, the last thing they needed were even more enemy soldiers to take down. She had Mia next to her and the two were handling themselves quite swell. Enough so that she allowed herself a half second to look around and see if Heather was anywhere close. She felt her heart constrict when she spotted no blond hair flying around slicing throats. She'd figured after what she said, Heather would've practically been her shadow in this battle.

"Hey, Mia, you seen Heather 'round?" She asked as she fended off a javelin that was aimed right at Mia's head with her shield.

The swords master whirled and sliced a head off before shooting her a glance. "Ike put her on supply-collecting duty."

Nephenee frowned as she took a swing with the javelin she'd just deflected, effectively tripping up the last living enemy soldier within sight. She couldn't help but feel like something bad was going on at the other end of the battlefield. "Hey, Haar!" She took a running start towards the wyvern knight as he zoomed over her head, figuring Mia would be alright with finishing off the last guy on her own. He stopped and lowered himself to the ground with a yawn. This battle was coming to an end and he'd be damned if he didn't use that tiny bit of calm to take a break.

"What's up, Nephenee?"

Nephenee took a running start and hopped onto the wyvern with much force, causing the poor beast to stagger a bit before regaining full flight status. His brows furrowed, Haar turned toward her with more urgency than he'd shown during the entire battle. "Sorry. I just... D'you know where Heather's at?"

With a quiet nod, the man steered his mount up and ahead full speed and found the mob of armored knights ganging up around a tree rather easily. He swept at ground level with his giant axe out and easily took one of them out while Nephenee used her chance to jump down armed with her heaviest spear.

Heather was cursing under her breath and literally crumbling under the injuries she had sustained. She appreciated that they all thought that she could hold her own, but her knives didn't even dent the heavy armors and there was just so much dodging she could do. She was about to just give up on it altogether when she saw a flash of black fly right by. Her heart skipped a beat when she also saw the tiny speck of red that followed.

"Heather!" The thief blinked and found herself in Nephenee's arm, behind a sturdy shield. She figured she had passed out for a moment. Either that or she had died and gone to heaven.

There was a loud swish of wind and she found herself balancing somewhere in between a javelin throw and a piece of armor. But despite the fierce battle she was fighting, Nephenee's hold on Heather never relinquished.

Then everything became eerily quiet.

Haar shot a glance towards Nephenee who returned his earlier nod with a shy "Thank ya much."

"It's nothing." The wyvern flew away as the words had barely escaped his lips. The silence didn't last much longer after that, as the cheers from the Greil's Mercenaries were heard all across the area. They had won this battle as well, with hopefully no casualties.

Heather sighed and, despite her heavy injuries, reveled in the feeling of being protected by the girl. She looked up hopefully, but found herself blissfully staring at a chin that was raised up. Then she felt herself being put down and her field of vision shifted to a sheepish Boyd who was running towards them with Rhys on his back.

"Oi, Neph! That's what I call arriving right in the nick of time!"

"Yes, thank you very much, Nephenee." Heather added to Boyd's implied apology, feeling herself slipping away again. "You're my hero." She whispered before her eyelids drooped. She wasn't awake anymore when Nephenee specified she "couldn't a'done it without Haar."

*.*.*

Heather woke up with this sluggish feeling she knew meant Rhys had used a Mend staff on her. She still had a bit of a hard time getting used to being healed by magic. It was something she couldn't really afford while gathering money for her mother. Before the mercenaries, that is.

"Oi, Heather! Yer fin'ly coming to. Had me worried like, a bunch!"

She chuckled, sort of out of habit, before opening her eyes to try and pinpoint Nephenee's exact location. She couldn't help but feel a special kind of warmth when she witnessed the object of her affection sitting on the side of her mat, this genuine worried look on her face – and still wearing the red scarf despite being armor-less.

"Pssh. I can't die yet! Still got things to do!" She tried to force a smile, but it quickly melted when she saw just how fidgety the girl was. "C'mon. I'm fine. Don't be so grim. You're so much prettier with a smile on your face."

Nephenee looked away and tried to find the right words to say. She had been at Heather's side all this time, thinking up this huge speech about what she felt, finding just the right words. And now that the woman was awake, all the words had faded away into oblivion.

"Nephy… Is something wrong? Did I not get enough supplies? Is general Ike firing me?"

"N-No!" Nephenee sighed and took a deep breath before facing Heather again. "You had more than enough. I had trouble carrying all of it back to base, in fact." Her head then suddenly dropped and a wave of teal hair covered her face.

Heather instinctively reached out and brushed her fingers through that hair she admired. Even all tussled and grimy from battle, it still felt as soft as she imagined it would. The back of her hand then came in contact with a really hot cheek and immediately her own protective instincts kicked in.

"My gosh, Nephenee! Are you okay? Do you have a fever?"

Heather's hand traveled over the girl's forehead as she looked up with big eyes. Part of her wanted nothing but to look away, yet she was rather curious about where those slender, soft fingers would wander off next. It really seemed like every time she was about to find what to say, Heather would do something that made her forget how to speak again.

"Ah. Uh. Nayh. I'm dandy! Barely even got scratched up in that last battle." She sighed quite audibly after that. It was a lost cause, so she figured she might as well walk away. "It's good ta see yer okay."

Heather was so busy checking up on her, she never saw that move coming and was unable to stop Nephenee from leaving her. Her hand still up in the air, she had to blink and shake her head to verify this had really happened.

She then resolved to resting some and ponder about all these signs that she was seeing. The last thing she wanted was to scare the halberdier off. She was one of the rare people that didn't straight out treat her as a thief. Perhaps she was also one of the only people she felt she could really be herself around, too.

Tomorrow. She had to untie the girl's tongue somewhat and get her to share what was on her mind.

*.*.*

Nephenee watched the sun rise from atop a hill, her back resting against a giant tree trunk. She was unable to sleep. All night long, her mind had went over her confession to Heather. All the words were right there in their place, and they didn't even sound that bad in her head. They would just get blurry when the thief was around. That silly, outgoing thief that had this iron grip on her heart and was just about going to succeed at stealing it.

A small smile crept on her lips at the thought. "It wouldn't be so bad…"

"What would?" Heather asked, finding a spot close enough to share warmth, but respectful so as to not make this more awkward than it had to be. She had been stalking the girl for like, an hour already. That could be viewed as creepy.

Once again, Nephenee was surprised at the mere fact she wasn't startled by her friend's stealthy approach. It was like she just knew whenever she was around. "Ah. I'm just here an' thinkin'."

"You do too much of that." Heather offered with a smile, which Nephenee found herself returning in earnest.

"I ain't goin' a' argue that one with ya." She turned her attention back to the sunrise and there was a moment of silence. For just that moment, Nephenee's mind finally seemed to shut up and stop that over-analyzing it had been doing all this time.

"Care to share?" Heather pushed on after a moment, feeling it was safe to ask. When the girl didn't answer right away, she took a deep breath and slowly slid her hand in Nephenee's before giving it a gentle squeeze. Maybe she would see it as an openly friendly gesture. However, she was hoping that it would mean a little more.

"I been havin' some, uh, feelings, recently. An' I dun know what ta do 'bout 'em." These weren't the words she had gone over so many times in her head, but they were a better option than walking away again. Especially if Heather actually shared the feelings.

"Oh, is that so?" Heather tried to contain the hopefulness in her voice. "So who's that handsome gent whom has conquered your heart, so I can steal it back?"

Nephenee chuckled and shook her head. If that wasn't a sign to go on then she didn't know what would be. "I'm 'fraid it's already been stolen. And the thief in question's more like, pretty."

Heather's smile beamed on to full-blown. "I'm sure she's going to hold onto it real tight, then. Doubt there's any way she'll ever let go. A beautiful girl like you is something I wouldn't give up for all the money in the world."

The hand in hers gave the squeeze back. Heather's heart was on the verge of bursting with anticipation. All she wanted at that point was to hear the words spoken clearly. So that all doubts could be erased. Anything else… Well it honestly didn't matter if she had the girl's affection. She truly meant every word she said.

"I… I think I'm fallin' for ya, Heather." Nephenee's cheeks were tinted pink again. Heather's heart completely melted at the sight of these childish, unsure eyes asking her wordlessly what came next. Heather stepped in front of her swiftly and put a soft kiss right on the girl's lips. She then let go in favor of giving the girl the most vigorous hug she'd ever had.

"I'll be there to catch you. Always"

* * *

><p><em>AN: This... Is not one of my best work. I liked the idea but somewhere along the way I just... I guess it's the pacing. But I wanted to write a oneshot and it's almost 1AM and I got work tomorrow xD Just figured, there isn't enough NephHeather love out there. (And I'm not exactly one to just dump two characters in without trying to make it feel like the game, thus you get that whole battle that, currently, I'm not sure I handled too well). But, enuf with the writer insecurities. I hope you enjoyed reading!_


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